Kirk Herbstreit frustrated with growing trend of opt-outs: 'I’m worried about the sport overall'
The 2020 season has seen a troubling trend thanks to the NCAA allowing athletes to opt out for personal reasons without recourse.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit has seen this growing trend and is troubled by it. In Herbstreit’s mind, players are making the choice that if they’re not playing in a major bowl like the College Football Playoff, then sit out the rest of the season, and get ready for the NFL. Herbstreit shared his latest thoughts on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit.
“I’m worried about the sport overall,” he said. “I’m worried about the focus strictly on the playoff, that if you’re not one of the playoff teams, ‘Why does it even matter, who cares? Let’s just opt out, let’s get ready for the NFL.'”
The difficult perspective is to lose sight of pretty good teams in favor of dominant teams. Or teams that started slow and were ignored, but have since come on strong. He gave an example of Iowa, which started 0-2, but have since won 4 games in a row.
“Even when you played, which wasn’t all that long ago, imagine playing at Michigan and let’s just say you’re 8-3 or 9-2 but you’re not in the playoff race. Part of my sensitivity to the world we live in is, that’s BS,” Herbstreit said, then referred to distractions at Iowa earlier following a lawsuit levied against the university by a group of former players and about the future of head coach Kirk Ferentz. “To me, that’s one of the great stories of college football (this year) and we live in this era of, ‘Does it have anything to do with the Playoff? Nope, OK, who cares.’ And if that’s the world we’re going to live in in college football, that’s like March Madness. If you’re in March Madness, fill out the bracket and we’re gonna get excited. But do you care about the NIT? No, unless it’s maybe your school.”
While some may dismiss his comments as being too focused on this season being in the middle of a pandemic, Herstreit sees it happening next season and beyond past concerns about COVID-19. His concern is that this trend will continue when the pandemic is over. Ultimately, he said, it’s the players that lose out.
“That’s what college football’s turning into with this playoff. If you’re in the Playoff, it’s March Madness, and if you’re not in the playoff — even if you’re 9-2 — good riddance. Kids are opting out of Rose Bowls, kids are opting out of Sugar Bowls. It’s like, what in the hell is happening to our sport?”
Getting the true college experience and not worrying as much about the NFL is what he’d like to see.
“If we move into 2021 and we have a vaccine and everything is back to normal and that becomes the new norm, players opting out — once your team is out of the race, you’re out — I would feel pain and sorrow for the players,” he said. “Part of what makes college football great is what you learn playing it. Being selfless, learning how to go through adversity as a group, learning about perseverance.”
Herbstreit said he would like players to think more long term, such as 20 to 30 years in the future, and not just about 3 years in college, and then an NFL career that is most likely 5 years or less.
He’s right. It’s a troubling phenomenon.
Kirk’s concern is correct—but, there is no solution. Schools have no control over what players decide to do.
NFL holds the solution, view the kid as a quitter, which should effect his draft stock. Now we all know that wont be the case!
Ha funny, I just left a post on the Mizzou page earlier about this very thing and how impressed I was with guys like Bolton, Rountree, Badie ect not opting out when guys are opting out like crazy once the season gets to a point they feel they’re above playing anymore due to some of the things Herbie mentioned. I think most of us in the back of our head wonder if this will become a new norm in years to come, I certainly hope not.
Booches…In future-years it will not be an opt-out it’ll be “I quit”. Opt out was created for these COVID times.
I don’t really like the opt outs, but there really is nothing anyone can do about it. People go to college to help secure their futures, whether they are athletes or not. If the player feels he has accomplished enough to be drafted high and get a fat check, we really can’t fault him for that. At the same time, I understand fans saying he quit on his team when players do this. I also believe that some of these players are getting bad advice. Two of the LSU players seem to be prime examples of this. Shelvin opted out when some were saying he could have been a first round pick. Now, he’s projected to go late second at the earliest or more likely, third round. Vincent opted out and now he’s projected to go in the fourth round. If this holds true, those guys left a lot of money on the table.
Today’s ME-ME-ME athletes(not all are) do not understand the word “Commitment”. The Universities that they signed with took on a huge financial commitment but obviously for some athletes…it means nothing.
I hate the ones that talk all this smack about being a team player, wanting to set an example for the rest and “coming back to finish the job”…then only a week later throwing up the “Dueces” sign.
You made a commitment…stick to it.
State is a bit too familiar with players opting out.
Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates. Left college to pursue their future.
People leave their jobs to go get better ones.
These kids are making business decisions. Playing football comes with risk. Giving kids scholarships comes with risk of them not sticking around your program. Everyone has to decide if the risk is worth it. Fans and analysts want to keep treating the sport like it is an amateur sport when there’s billions of dollars in the sport – name an amateur league that generates that kind of revenue.
It’s semi-pro, so sure maybe not the greatest look to opt out from teams they’d work for but they get to make a decision if the optics are worth leaving.
Kids quitting on their team is not what made CFB become the revenue behemoth it has become.
It would be short sighted to think things can’t change.
Not sure what you’re saying here. Covid theoretically won’t be a concern in future years so it’ll be some players with NFL dreams that don’t finish the seasons.
I’m sure the NCAA isn’t crying about what March madness does for college basketball. I don’t think the money will all of the sudden go poof if teams who are struggling start having a few players leave mid season.
If players got paid and their pay was dependent on them playing, that would probably solve some things but apparently that just tarnishes everything that is pure in the world.
Teams that are struggling is not the issue.
If several key players start leaving before the bowl games it will affect attendance and soon thereafter TV revenue.
The issue is TV contracts are already set before a season starts. There’s no way of predicting which “key players” on which teams will opt out. Tickets are sold before a season happens, donors give based on the team and not whether or not a player opts out.
Sure, there will be financial impacts but I think the playoff is becoming more of a super bowl, March madness, etc money maker for college football so really you’re kind of shifting funds more than drawing them out.
People want to blame the athletes instead of blaming the system. If they got paid instead of the NCAA and their contracts were based on playing in games, this would be a non-issue. Additionally, what about the programs these athletes are opting out of? Are they toxic?
I think it boils down to this: the modern athlete views the system as a business, fans and analysts view it as an amateur sport. I think the athletes are right to view it as a business and the fans and analysts are living in a dream world.
I am talking about future TV rights and future ticket sales, not next season. If over time interest fades due to the player’s not participating unless it’s the playoff, the product is going to suffer.
I think you are right, the modern player views as a business. This will kill it.
I think attendance could drop in the future and maybe there’s less money in TV contracts which there probably should be anyway. But I still think a lot of the money gets shifted toward the CFP than random regular season games.
Why are people blaming the players for all of this though? They didn’t create the CFP system. And with such limited teams in the playoff a lot more teams seemingly don’t much to play for when they don’t make it. Of course pride and all that, but if you’re talking about risking playing for millions it’s understandable.
The thing is why should players not view it as a business? Why would they care if they “kill the business”? They’re not seeing the benefits of it so it wouldn’t make sense for them to care.
Think about it this way, you’re in an unpaid internship only to get into a full time well paying job. That unpaid internship happens to put your body in harms way every day. Well, that future full time job requires your body to be in good working condition, and someone from one of those businesses you’re trying to get a job from says your resume and experience is good enough. You don’t have to take the risks with your body, and in fact we would prefer it if you didn’t. Maybe you’d still judge that person, but these kids have millions on the line and people want to throw in their faces that they need to play for the pride of their school. If they got a fair wage out of it, that would line up but they don’t do in my mind they can do whatever they want.
The players get no benefit from playing college football??
I give up.
Well, don’t play.! No one is making them.
My point is they don’t benefit from the business of the game. I’m not saying they don’t get any benefit by being a football player. This isn’t the 1950’s.
They get a scholarship, which is the same pre college football being big business and present day. So yeah, they’re not really seeing the benefit of it. Unless you want to count being on tv and bowl game swag in there. But let’s be honest if Robert Downey Jr was getting paid in “experience” and “free room and food” for doing all of those Marvel movies we’d question. Star athletes are the equivalent to star actors/actresses in big time movies. The difference is those people get paid like it.
Just because it’s the system we’re left with doesn’t make it good. Of course you know there’s no minor league equivalent in football so there’s nowhere to go. That doesn’t mean the system can’t or doesn’t need to change.
I am not particularly interested in seeing players shop their talents around like the NFL. Talk about competition imbalance. It’s bad enough now. You would have 10 super schools.
There are 1 million reasons why this is a bad idea.
BTW, actors don’t begin their career making millions per picture.
Most work small venues for next to nothing or probably nothing as their refine their craft.
“Small venues” would equate to the stage high school football is on. College football is not a small stage. These are the stars of the show in a billion dollar+ industry……..
Sure it’s not the NFL, name another amateur sport that brings in the revenues, attention, etc as college football. I do not believe you will find one, additionally I think you’ll find many cases of both semi-pro and professional leagues that don’t generate the money being tossed around in college football.
But sure, it’s important to line the NCAA’s pockets and fund other true amateur sports more than the players putting their bodies on the line.
You don’t have to agree with paying players, but if players make choices based on not getting paid and protecting their future, that’s the system. After all you were the one who said “if you don’t like then don’t play” which is basically the whole point that these players are doing. But then you’ll also call them “quitters” and say they don’t respect these institutions, etc.
Big difference in signing up to play and then quitting when things don’t go your way vs saying I don’t want to get taken advantage of so I will not play. I would respect anyone who took that stand.
BTW, where does this money come from? Most every Athletic Dept in the country loses money.
Imagine if UF loses to TN this weekend. LSU would have a chance to knock them out of ATL. But, since their best players have walked out, that’s not happening. You don’t see the problem?